Eiji Matsuno
Eiji Matsuno is an inventor who lives in one of the villages on the eastern side of Akupara Island. Although technically from a farming background, since much of his village is built around agriculture, he is known for his inventiveness and strives to find and utilize better technology than the clockwork machinery found on the island. As a simple farm man he has no intention to be known and seeks a simple lifestyle whilst engaging in his hobbies. He ultimately wishes for the island's well being and seeks to improve it. Background Eiji Matsuno was born at a time when technological developments on Akupara island were just beginning to make manned flight a practical reality. Although aircraft had existed on the island for atleast a decade they were few and far between and shunned by the elders of many villages. Eiji was born into a world where these machines were beginning to create new opportunities for islanders. As such, ever since he was a young boy he has been fascinated by machines of all kind. As a boy he attended the local schools and learnt everything the village governours felt was nessecary but this never satisfied his inventive side, so he spent much of his time out of school experimenting with machinery when he was not needed on the farms. His experiments have led to a great deal of trouble in the past. In his efforts to refine gunpowder and contribute to the town's defence he managed to blow up a portion of his house and nearly set fire to much of the street. Thankfully the quick initiative of bypassers meant that little damage was done to the street and fires were put out in time to prevent a monster in the area from investigating the village. Ever since that event he has been viewed as a trouble maker despite his many efforts to prove his innocence. Now at the age of 35 he remains unmarried, much to the dishonour of his parents, and is viewed by many of the village elders with supsicion. The younger and middle age adults of the village see him as something of a joke, although most of them get on fairly well with him, and the local children simply find him and his inventions fascinating, much to the concern of the elders and their parents. Eiji is one of three siblings. He has a younger brother, aged 28, called Tetsuro Matsuno and a younger sister, aged 20, called Tomoki Matsuno. His brother Tetsuro is married to a women, aged 27, called Yoko Ifukube (now Yoko Matsuno) who originates from the floating islands. The couple met when Eiji first flew his autogyro to the floating islands with his brother as a passenger. Due to a bad landing they were stuck on the floating island whilst Eiji repaired the machine. In that relatively short space of time, little more than a month, Tetsuro and Yoko fell in love. They hurried a wedding the following year when they discovered Yoko was pregnant. This led to the birth of Eiji's niece, Eiko, who is now 5 years of age. Both of Eiji's parents are still alive and Eiji's father, Kenpachiro Matsuno, serves as one of the younger elders and governours of their village. Ken often finds himself having to make excuses for his son's mishaps, much to his regret... His mother, Akane Matsuno (originally Akane Nakajima), is a seamstress with a small shop in the village where she takes on the local women and older girls as apprentices. Both of Eiji's parents are in their 60's and maintain good health. Eiji as an inventor still owns his autogyro, which is still airworthy despite being over a decade old. Although his inventions are typically considered a nuisance, the other villages do appreciate Eiji using his autogyro for crop spraying which vastly speed up the whole farming process and increases productivity. With the village being situated in a valley with lakes, Eiji is one of the few inventors with a submarine. This has further damaged his reputation since Eiji has openly confessed to having connections with Kappa. His finally noteworthy invention is his giant mecha, nicknamed Lunatic by the locals due to its clockwork nature (the name is also comment on how mad Eiji must be for building a machine that big, especially considering its purpose...). In an effort to clear his name and re-earn some respect Eiji built Lunatic, a giant mecha towering over 80 meters in height, with the intention of piloting it to ward of giant monsters when they occasionally get too close to the village. Eiji has been in several brawls with giant monsters using Lunatic and although he has always managed to repel them without damaging the village, he has been injured on numerous occasions and Lunatic has been rebuilt atleast twice due to battle wear. Although the help Lunatic provides is appreciated it remains a very controversial invention due to the amount of money spent on it which could have been put to other uses. Many consider Lunatic to be a waste of good resources and, despite conviniently folding into a pagoda when not in use, many consider it to be an eyesore... Eiji has plenty of other inventions lying around in various states. None are especially noteworthy since a fair few are little more than bits and pieces lying around his garden awaiting completion, some simply do not work and the others do not make any impact on the rest of the village. He did attempt to propose the construction of an airship but having already taken up plenty of land with Lunatic he was scolded by the elders for being so outrageous... Personality Despite being something of a village idiot Eiji manages to maintain a fairly sunny disposition and is usually seen smiling, albeit in a slightly cheeky manner... Although Eiji is typically a fairly pleasant person who does his best to help others he is misunderstood. There are a few reasons for this; one of which is Eiji, at times, simply lacks common sense or says outlandish things at the least appropriate times. The other reason he is misunderstood is because he occasionally over looks peoples feelings in favour of rationality. This may explain why he remains unmarried at the ripe age of 35.... Aspirations: (these are similar to goals but the characters might not actively pursue an achievement in a campaign setting -eg. be a good person or become a writer) *Find himself a partner that understands him and settle down with them. Character Flaws: *He is occasionally too rational and sometimes lacks emotion. *He has a terrible tendency to see everything in a humourous way. *Sometimes lacks common sense. Likes: *Machines, lots of machines. *It could be considered a character flaw but Eiji has a terrible weakness for food and quite an appetite to the extent that his gluttony is compared to that of a Kappa's. *The feeling of freedom and easy life. *He likes all of his extended family but has a soft spot for his niece, Eiko. Dislikes: *Most farm work.... With a passion... *Being hurried or keeping to schedules. *People who cannot see the brilliance of his inventions. Strengths: *Despite being fairly lazy, Eiji is quite the martial artist and has a brilliant ability to make use of surrounding items as improvised weapons. *At 35, with plenty of experience under his belt, he has essentially perfected the use of clockwork and is very much a master of machines. *Can summon Lunatic when the situation calls for an oversized walking pagoda. *Knows how to fly aircraft and understands aviation theory. Weaknesses: *Women... *Not as good at socialising as he perhaps could be. *When not in a fighting scenario his dexterity seems to plummet astronomically... Beliefs: *Like any good villager he worships the local giant monster (despite having beaten it up on a few occasions) for keeping away intruders and keeping the Turtle healthy. Wants: *Improved technology, partly for him to play with since he has done everything that can be done with clockwork but also to aid the island's development. Fears: *Dying a lonely man... *For his family's well being. Alignment: *Chaotic good. Appearance Eiji is fairly average in height at 6ft. He has straight, jet black hair and dark brown eyes which suggest a deep personality despite his otherwise clumsy appearance and his sunny disposition. He is always clean shaven with no stuble. Due to his appetite and eating habits he has a fairly ample belly... Eiji typically wears kimonos in various shades (typically dark) of blue and has become a bit of a joke since he typically tucks the lower parts away for added mobility (and because he is less likely to get caught in his machines in his workshop...). Having heard the jokes made about him behind his back he has since had Akane and Tomoki design kimonos for him that are shorter and better suited to his working environments. Under the kimono he usually wears white leggings, socks and sandels and his trademark scarf over which he often wears his machining/flying goggles around his neck when he does not need to wear them properly. Goals *Having been stranded within the same village for a long time, most of his life in fact, Eiji has decided that he wants to leave the village and the island altogether in an effort to see new things, learn new skills and seek better technology, ultimately in an effort to better himself since he knows he is not who he should be. He knows that there are other worlds out there because he talks to the airship crews that occasionally stop in the village to pick up supplies which are traded to the outside world. Having gotten to know many of the airship crews he was able to convince them to allow him onboard as a passenger. He went equipped with his Wakazashi, his hand cannon, the device used to summon Lunatic incase everything goes pear shaped and, since he thought the islanders would be interested to see the outside world, he took a camera with him too to log his adventures. If nothing else the photos would make a nice souvenir for Eiko. Upon arrival he got lost very quickly. Amazed by how big everything is on the mainland he quickly felt out of his depth. At that point a man approached him asking if he could inspect Eiji's camera. Seeing this as an opportunity to make a friend on the mainland he happily handed over the camera. There was silence for a few short seconds before the man abruptly took off with Eiji's camera. It should be noted that, due to the small closely knit communities on Akupara Island, the concept of stealing is virtually non-existent outside of children playing unfairly and the rumours regarding the Kappa being crooked. Needless to say, Eiji was shocked by what had just transpired before him. It had not even occured to him that an adult might try and steal another persons possesions. Feeling positively betrayed, Eiji sort to get his camera back. How would he get pictures for Eiko without it??? (at present Eiji is not aware that cameras exist outside of Akupara Island) *As a short term goal, Eiji wants his camera back. Nearly blinded by rage, he might teach that guy a lesson too... Weaponry Since his village, like every other village and town on Akupara, is occasionally attacked by monsters of various sizes it is compulsory for all adults to carry a weapon of some description. In Eiji's case, he carries a Wakazashi with him as a back up/close quarters weapon but his primary weapon is a two handed hand cannon (a large rifle) called the Dragon Belcher. His only other weapon is his ability to summon and pilot Lunatic although he seldom ever needs to. Category:Characters